LAS VEGAS — After Honda introduced its new all-electric 0 Collection at CES this week, suffice it to say we had questions. Happily for us, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe was there to share the information in particular person. Together with different chosen media, we had the chance to ask something we appreciated concerning the forthcoming platform and Honda’s plans for its rollout right here in the USA beginning in 2026. Listed here are 5 key issues we realized about this new platform and the vehicles it can underpin.
We might even see one earlier than the Saloon arrives in 2026
Whereas Honda has promised it can launch a manufacturing mannequin primarily based on the ‘Saloon’ idea in North America in 2026, one other 0 Collection automobile may very well arrive on the similar time — and even sooner. What type that will take is anyone’s guess, as Mibe remained shy concerning the particulars. For now, deal with 2026 because the arduous deadline and rule nothing out.
It can increase to new segments
At launch, 0 Collection will probably be a “mid-large” platform, which we are able to take to imply midsize for sensible functions. This is able to assist vehicles of equal measurement to Honda’s current Accord and Passport together with the Odyssey minivan (take an in depth take a look at that Area Hub idea beneath). Honda plans to supply 0 Collection fashions with totally different footprints later. A small-car platform appropriate for subcompact, midcompact and compact choices (assume Honda Metropolis, HR-V, Civic, CR-V, and so on.) will observe later, as will a good bigger platform, which we might anticipate to be utilized for a Pilot equal. Although the prevailing ICE-powered Pilot and its different sibling, the Ridgeline are midsizers driving on the identical platform because the aforementioned Passport, these are as massive as Honda’s vans and crossovers get. If the mid-large platform may accommodate such choices, it stands to cause {that a} bigger one would not be mandatory.
It has not broken Honda’s relationship with GM
Mibe dismissed any perceived rift between Honda and Normal Motors ensuing from the dissolution of their settlement to construct a line of small vehicles on GM’s Ultium EV platform. The businesses parted methods over a need to method their long-term electrification methods in another way, not over any technological limitations or constraints offered by the Ultium platform itself, Mibe mentioned, and the 2 corporations are nonetheless working collectively to develop autonomous know-how using components of GM’s Cruise division.
“Our relationship is nice with GM,” Mibe mentioned.
It already has an expiration date
Whereas Mibe believes the 0 Collection will evolve considerably over the lifetime of the platform, Honda has already outlined its lifecycle. It’s anticipated to shoulder Honda’s EV efforts from 2026 till 2031 or 2032, at which era it is going to be phased out. In favor of what? Mibe would not say, however he did level out that the automotive trade remains to be collectively ready for the important thing generational breakthrough in battery tech that may allow actually inexpensive EVs. Whether or not that finally ends up being widespread availability of solid-state batteries or one thing else solely stays to be seen, but it surely nonetheless stays firmly sooner or later in the interim.
In any occasion, the 0 Collection will flip right into a pumpkin earlier than the center of the subsequent decade. Deliberate obsolescence or simply one other inevitability of progress? You resolve.
Acura will do its personal factor
The 0 Collection because it has been offered to this point is proscribed to the Honda model. Whereas the corporate has plans for Acura, they will not merely be 0 Collection retreads, Mibe instructed us. Given the realities of recent automotive manufacturing, we take that to imply that Acura’s platform will get its personal identify and its automobiles will get solely distinctive bodywork. Till Honda shares extra particulars, we’ll simply have to attend and see.
Associated video: